Kentucky House Taking Up Redistricting, Despite Objections

Kentucky House lawmakers are moving forward with redistricting, despite hesitation from the Senate and pleas from the governor to focus on other issues.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo says the regional caucuses are still working on drawing new maps of their districts. And the main holdup is in Eastern Kentucky, where the 2010 Census showed large drops in population.

Despite those issues, Stumbo says he wants to finish redistricting this session.

"Our caucus voted to move forward on redistricting and I didn't look at every hand but it looked like it was a pretty unanimous vote so Democrats in the House want to move on this issue."

Senate leaders say redistricting has been discussed, but they view the issue as too contentious to bring up this year.

Lawmakers must draw new district maps after each census. They did just that last year, but a judge threw them out, saying the maps were unconstitutional. New maps must be in place before the deadline to run for office in next year's elections.